THE YUKAGHIRS

Self-designation. The Yukaghir from the Upper Kolyma Valley call themselves
Odul, those from the Alazeya call themselves Vadul, and those from the
Indigirka call themselves Dutke, Dutkil and Buguch. The name Yukaghir is
considered to be a generic name of Tungus origin meaning the 'icy or frozen
people'. However, there are also some other interpretations and Y. Kreinovich,
for instance, claims that the origin of the word is unclear.

Habitat. As recently as the beginning of the 17th century, the Yukaghirs
were over a large territory in North-Eastern Siberia -- from the lower reaches
of the River Lena in the west to the middle and upper reaches of the River
Anadyr in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Verkhoyansk
Mountains in the south. It has been suggested that the early Yukaghir (
the Yukaghir-Chuvan tribes) inhabited areas further to the west and to
the south. In the 12th or the 13th century the Tungus people (the Evens
and the Evenks) invaded Northern Siberia, coming from the mountain taigas
behind Lake Baikal. It may be assumed that the Tungus and the Yukaghir
met near the River Vilyui and the lower Aldan. Probably part of the Yukaghir
moved still further to the north: to the upper Yana, Indigirka, Kolyma
and Anadyr rivers, and into the forests and the tundra. A part of them
intermingled with the Tungus.

Today, a small number of the Yukaghir live in the Nizhnekolymsk district
in Yakutia (the Forest Yukaghir or the Odul) and in the Srednekansk district
in the Magadan region (the Tundra Yukaghir or the Vadul).

Population. According to 1970 census data the Yukaghir numbered 600 and
according to 1979 census data their number was 835. Of these 37.5 % were
native language speakers.

Anthropologically the Yukaghir belong to the Baikal group of the North-Asian
race.

Ethnologically the Yukaghir are regarded as indigenous peoples of Eastern
Siberia. Before the Russian colonization of the 17th century the Yukaghir
tribes (the Chuvans, the Hodyns, the Anaul, etc.) were scattered over an
area which extended from the River Lena to the mouth of the River Anadyr.
The Yukaghir population was considerably reduced in the 17th--19th centuries
owing to epidemics, internecine warfare and the colonization policy of
the tsarist government -- partly also due to their assimilation by the Chukchi,
Yakut, Even and Russian peoples.

Language. The genetically isolated Yukaghir language has been regarded
as one of the Paleo-Asiatic languages. It has been hypothesized that the
Yukaghir language is related to the Uralic languages. However, the grammatical
structure and the vocabulary of the Yukaghir language are so different
from the modern Uralic languages that it is obvious that the Yukaghir separated
from the common Uralic language earlier than the Samoyedic or the Finno-Ugric
peoples, that is, more than 8, 000 years ago. A sizeable part of the Yukaghir
vocabulary is of unknown origin. In the basic vocabulary of the two major
dialects spoken today there are such disparities that the only possible
explanation is the existence of a substratum or some other non-trivial
dialectal differentiation.

There were probably many Yukaghir languages and dialects but by the end
of the 19th century, when the study of the Yukaghir languages was begun,
only the two dialects -- widely differing from each other -- had survived:
the Forest or Kolyma dialect and the Tundra or Alazeya dialect. The majority
of the Yukaghir people had been assimilated by that time: the nomadic reindeer
herders from the upper Anadyr had switched to using the Koryak and Chukchi
languages, and the Yukaghir on the River Yana had Evenized, and the settled
fishermen from the middle Anadyr had adopted Russian. On the lower Kolyma
russification had begun even earlier: the compound of peoples there regarded
themselves as the Kolyma people. The same kind of russification was under
way on the upper Kolyma. However, when the Cossacks, who had been the main
cause of russification, were resettled to Srednekolymsk, the urban population
followed them and so the russification of the Yukaghir in the upper Kolyma
Valley was temporarily checked. Thereafter, the cultural and linguistic
influence of the Yakut people began to be felt, so that by the end of the
19th century all the Yukaghir from the upper Kolyma spoke Yakut quite fluently.
Lamut and Even also exerted some influence, although the cultural and linguistic
interdependence of the Even and the Yukaghir was dynamically balanced;
there was a mutual influence without it being mutually destructive. With
the arrival of the Soviets in the Kolyma region in the early 1930s russification
again gathered momentum as Yukaghir settlements became permeated by Russian
officials, teachers, veterinary surgeons, travelling cinema people and
weather station operators. Despite the two periods of russification, and
the influence of Yakut and Lamut, the Yukaghir on the upper Kolyma were
able , to a certain extent, to preserve their language. Russian is still
preferred as a common everyday language but there are about 240 persons
who still today speak the Yukaghir language (according to V. Tugolukov).

The core of the Alazeya Yukaghir is made up of Tungus people who came from
the lower reaches of the River Lena and married into the Yukaghir. In 1957,
nearly the whole population (in the Olyor village community) were regarded
as Evenk. In 1970, part of the community was registered as Yukaghir. There
exist families who cannot decide whether to regard themselves as Evenk,
or, Yukaghir. V. Tugolukov claims that this refers to the earlier origin
of the Yukaghir linguistic tradition in the Alazeya area. Both the Evens
and the Yukaghir speak Yakut fluently. Yakut and Russian were the two languages
in common use amongst the multilingual population of the Alazeya tundra,
including the early Russian settlers. The Yukaghir language was mainly
confined to use amongst the elderly.

According to V. Tugolukov about 40 Yukaghir live on the Indigirka (in the
Alaikha district, Yakutia), referring to themselves as the Dutke or Buguch.

History. The first Russians came to these parts in 1635. Their initial
aim was to collect tribute in the form of sable furs from the native people
and to build fortified towns along the banks of the River Yana. From there,
they proceeded to the Indigirka, and then on to other areas. The Kolyma
Valley was settled around 1643. The new settlers built towns to facilitate
the collecting of tributes from the local inhabitants. The towns also served
as places to keep hostages. Special detention houses were filled with hostages,
held in order to force their relatives to bring in more pelts. Approximately
6 % of the adult males were permanently kept hostage. However, the Russians
realized that this reduced the number of able-bodied hunters, so toward
the end of the 17th century the system was changed and, instead of prime
males, youngsters were detained. The mortality rate was high. The anthropologist
B. Dolgikh considers hostage-taking to be one reason for drastic decrease
in the Yukaghir population following the Russian invasion. The Russians
managed to put a strain on relations between the Chukchi, the Koryak and
the Yukaghir people. The Yukaghir took part in looting raids and in punitive
expeditions against the other peoples.

Among Russian officials there was competition for the right to collect
tribute from the local people. The result was that some of the tribes had
to pay tribute and supply hostages twice or more. Resistance was punished
by wives and children being taken captive. Thus in the 17th century a lot
of Yukaghir women were in the hands of Russian officials and traders. Dolgikh
claims that between 1770 and 1780, for example, approximately 10 % of Yukaghir
women of marrying age lived with officials and traders. The imbalance between
the number of men and women, warfare, intermingling with neighbouring peoples
and the smallpox epidemics which ravaged Yakutia in 1657, 1659--1660 and
1691--1692, all contributed to a marked decline in the Yukaghir population.
While in the mid-17th century the Yukaghir numbered approximately 4,700,
by the 1680s the population had fallen to 3,700 and by the end of the century
the number was 2,600 (B. Dolgikh). Thousands of people continued to fall
victim to venereal diseases and frequent famines and in 1861 there were
only 1,000 Yukaghir in the province of Yakutia.

In the 17th century the invaders did not have time to put ideological pressure
on the Yukaghir or any other native people of Siberia. Conversions to the
Russian Orthodox religion were random (The Yukaghir were given a drink
and, when drunk, were made to cross themselves). Systematic conversions
began in the early 18th century after a church had been built in the fort
of Zashiver, on the Indigirka. From then onwards the Yukaghir were given
Russian names.

The main reason for the famines was that the Yukaghirs were unable to adjust
to new, changed conditions. The Yukaghirs had been wholly dependent on
the environment. However, the ecology of Siberia worsened after the Russian
intrusion. Reindeer, waterfowl and fish all disappeared. The latter were
literally eaten up by the dogs; the Russians settlers, the Yakut and the
russified Yukaghir had begun to use dogsleds. In one year one dogsled ate
36,000--40,000 fish. Clergyman, A. Argentov, called dogsleds in the lower
Kolyma "a destructive war waged by man against nature".

Ethnic culture. The early Yukaghir used weapons made of stone and bone.
The Tungus who came to Northern Siberia sometime before the 13th century
had the advantage of using iron weapons and keeping reindeer for transport.

The ancestors of the Forest Yukaghir were hunters and fishermen who moved
from place to place in search of food. Until the 18th century, the main
occupation of the Yukaghir in the upper Kolyma Valley was hunting wild
reindeer. This was undertaken twice a year when the migrating reindeer
crossed the large rivers. Experts say that the methods employed by the
Yukaghir in hunting were of the utmost perfection. Hunting occupies an
important place on the upper Kolyma even today. The Tundra Yukaghir placed
no less value on hunting although their main use for reindeer was transport.
One of the Yukaghir's main weapons was the bow -- it remained in use until
the 1920s because of the imperfection of firelocks and the shortage and
high price of shot and gunpowder.

During the Soviet period the economic conditions of the Yukaghir changed
beyond recognition. The Yukaghir worked on state-owned farms, hunting fur
animals, keeping reindeer, raising cattle (and horses) and gardening.

In the life of the elder Yukaghir people, game animal worship was still
very important. While hunting they maintained one basic tenet: do not take
from nature more than is needed. For a long time the shamanistic tradition
was kept alive despite overwhelming russification. For a long time a matrilineal
social organization survived, including matrilocal marriage. This is the
main feature that distinguishes between the Yukaghir and the Tungus.

Writing. The Forest Yukaghir employed a form of picture writing (tos --
letters or shangar shorile 'birchbark' letters). Picture script was used
by the hunters for route maps. These were read by the Yakut traders who
looked for Yukaghir summer camps to sell the tea, tobacco, etc.

A systematic study of the Yukaghir was begun by Waldemar Jochelson who,
after being exiled to the Kolyma region, participated in an 1894--1896 expedition
and collected a wealth of ethnographic and linguistic material about the
Yukaghir -- who were supposed at that time to already be extinct.

In 1930 a Yukaghir, named Nikolai Spiridonov, graduated from the University
in Leningrad. He wrote a couple of books on the life of the indigenous
people of the Kolyma region. Spiridonov fell victim to Stalinism. Other
educated Yukaghir people where the brothers Semyon, Gavril and Nikolai
Kurilov. Gavril Kurilov developed a writing system which is based on Russian
and Yakut scripts. This script has been used in local Yukaghir editions.